I am writing a scene with Clove and Ella for something exciting…and I’ve missed them SO MUCH. I’m getting emotional.

#the last beginning #another beginning
4TH JUN 2017

I’ve got a special announcement coming your way tomorrow. Here’s a clue. Can anyone guess what it is? 👀

#another beginning
20TH JUL 2017

walkerbooksya: Let’s celebrate YALC with some FREE eBooks!
We’re thrilled to announce that to celebrate YALC 2017 we are going to be publishing three novellas by authors Alison Goodman, Lauren James and Non Pratt in eBook format. These will be available FOR FREE, and we’ll be publishing one a day over the YALC weekend. You can find more information about each of the eBooks below:

Lusus Naturae by Alison Goodman, publishing Friday 28 July

Experience Lord Carlston and Lady Helen’s first meeting from Lord Carlston’s point of view in this compelling novella, a companion to The Dark Days Club.

London, April 1812. Lord Carlston, a man of dubious reputation and infuriating manners, has recently returned from the Continent. He is in London to assess whether Lady Helen Wrexhall has inherited her mother’s Reclaimer abilities, which would mark her as a protector of society. These abilities would also take Lady Helen from the glittering ballrooms and bright lights of her first Season into a world of demonic creatures and deadly power. Not the usual aspirations for a young lady in Regency society…

Perfect for longstanding fans and readers new to the series, the novella also includes a chapter from The Dark Days Club, so you can experience the same scene from Lady Helen’s point of view.

Another Beginning by Lauren James, publishing Saturday 29 July

Featuring the much-loved protagonists Clove and Ella, Another Beginning is a companion story to The Last Beginning, set during the siege of Carlisle in 1745.

Clove is working as a maid in the Finchley household while she spies on Katherine Finchley and Matthew Galloway. But her mission is briefly interrupted when fellow maid Ella persuades her to help steal a valuable historical document from the main defence in the city – the castle. The two girls embark on a risky adventure involving scaling castle walls and hiding in the most unlikely of places! A fast-paced and fun read, perfect for Lauren James’s existing fans, and readers who enjoy historical fiction and romance.

Includes the first chapter of Lauren James’s third novel, The Loneliest Girl in the Universe.

Get Sef’s side of the story in this deleted scene from Non Pratt’s gripping new novel Truth or Dare.

In this previously unpublished scene from Non Pratt’s gripping love story, Truth or Dare, get a moving insight into Sef’s family life before and after his brother Kam’s life-changing accident. Sef looks back to choosing the name for his family’s new kitten – a moment that seems very far away from his life now, as both he and Amir struggle to come to terms with what’s happened to their brother.

Includes the first two chapters of Truth or Dare, one story told from two sides.

Excited? So are we!

If you’re at YALC next weekend, don’t forget to pop along to the Walker stand to say hello! And if you can’t be there, we hope these three eBooks will help to ease the pain a little bit.

So ready for all of these, @walkerbooksya 💪

#another beginning
13TH AUG 2017

Free short story!
So who would like to see more of Clove and Ella? What about Clove and Ella pulling off a heist? And revealing why Ella was really in Carlisle? THEN I’VE GOT SOME GOOD NEWS 4 U BUDDIES.

As of right now, you can read a free novella by me on Amazon Kindle, or any other eBook retailer, which includes not just one but ALL OF THOSE THINGS. Kate and Matt got their own short story in Another Together, so I had to give Clove and Ella one too! It’s about Clove and Ella pulling off a heist in 1745. It’s pretty fun. Here’s some more information. Enjoy!

A short story set in the world of Lauren James’ Next Together series.

Featuring the much-loved protagonists Clove and Ella, Another Beginning is a companion story to The Last Beginning, set during the siege of Carlisle in 1745.

Clove is working as a maid in the Finchley household while she spies on Katherine Finchley and Matthew Galloway. But her mission is briefly interrupted when fellow maid Ella persuades her to help steal a valuable historical document from the main defence in the city – the castle. The two girls embark on a risky adventure involving scaling castle walls and hiding in the most unlikely of places!

A fast-paced and fun read, perfect for Lauren James’s existing fans, and readers who enjoy historical fiction and romance.

Includes the first chapter of Lauren James’s third novel, The Loneliest Girl in the Universe.

theparisreview: Behold: the first written use of fuck, from 1528, inscribed by a monk who seems to have been pretty pissed off with an abbot.

#another beginning
15TH JUL 2017

englishable: Old English just has some wonderful words and kennings. I mean, really:

Their word for sea? It was often swan-rad or “road of the swan.” Spider was gangelwaefre, literally “the walking weaver.” They had the simple and now-obsolete word uht, which describes that time just before sunrise when mist still hangs heavy over all the fields and lakes and the last few stars are still out.

…Also, they didn’t say body. They said ban-cofan, which means “bone-cave,” and if you don’t think that’s some hardcore shit right there then you need to get out of my face before I turn your skull into a mead-cup.

In the commentary on his translation of Beowulf, Tolkien argues that translating ‘rád’ as ‘road’ in the context of kennings for the sea is incorrect. On the subject of ‘hronrád’, which is often translated as ‘whale-road’, he says:
“rád is the ancestor of our modern word ‘road’, but it does not mean ‘road’. Etymology is not a safe guide to sense. rád is the noun of action to rídan ‘ride’ and means riding – i.e. ‘riding on horseback; moving as a horse does (or a chariot), or as a ship does at anchor’; and hence ‘a journey in horseback’ (or more seldom by ship), ‘a course (however vagrant)’. It does not mean the actual ‘track’ – still less the hard paved permanent and more or less straight tracks that we associate with the ‘road’…The word as ‘kenning’ therefore means dolphin’s riding, i.e. in full, the watery fields where you can see dolphins and lesser members of the whale-tribe playing, or seeming to gallop like a line of riders on the plains. That is the picture and comparison the kenning was meant to evoke. It is not evoked by ‘whale road’ – which suggests a sort of semi-submarine steam-engine running along submerged metal rails over the Atlantic.”